Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 439 New System Functions

Qingzhou, Jinan.

Xing Gao was a member of a prominent family in Hejian. He was exiled to Qi and Lu because of the war. He was oppressed by the local powerful families in Qi and Lu, and joined forces with the remnants of the Six Garrisons to rebel.

Also because Xing Gao came from a noble family, his rebel army grew rapidly and became the largest force between Qi and Lu.

Xing Gao later accepted Ge Rong's surrender and was canonized by Ge Rong. After Ge Rong was defeated, he continued to attack Ji County and was later defeated by Yuan Tianmuhui and Gao Huan.

After Xing Gao was defeated in Ji County, he fled back to Qingzhou and quickly gathered an army of 50,000.

However, when Xing Gao heard that Erzhu Rong was going to come and destroy him first, he became a little frightened.

After all, Ge Rong's powerful force was destroyed in an instant at the hands of Erzhu Rong. Qingzhou only had such a small number of troops, which were not enough to defeat Erzhu Rong.

Xing Gao wanted to surrender but was stopped by his advisers.

The strategist's name was Su Tan. He was a well-traveled businessman who was knowledgeable and talkative.

When Su Tan's caravan was captured by Ge Rong in Yecheng, Xing Gao saved him because he was talkative.

When Ji County was defeated, most of Xing Gao's followers were scattered. Now the only person who can negotiate with them is the businessman Su Tan.

"Your Majesty, you can't do that!"

Su Tan said:

"Erzhu Rong was a bloodthirsty man. After your majesty was defeated in the battle, he surrendered with his troops and was killed by Erzhu Rong. In Heyin, countless false Wei royals and nobles were killed. Your relative Shao Gong was so famous, but now his life or death is unknown!"

The Shao Gong that Su Tan mentioned was Xing Shao, who was from the same clan as Xing Gao. He disappeared in the Heyin Rebellion, and people all said that he was killed by Erzhu Rong.

After listening to Su Tan's words, Xing Gao also made up his mind not to surrender to Erzhu Rong. He killed the envoy sent by Erzhu Rong to persuade him to surrender and declared that he and Erzhu Rong were irreconcilable.

Xing Gao mobilized all his troops to fight against Erzhu Rong south of the Ji River.
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"My Lord, this is honeycomb coal made in the coal mine."

Su Qiao [a skillful bricklayer] is an orange follower that Su Ze drew a few days ago. After Su Ze taught him the method of making honeycomb coal, he quickly made honeycomb coal.

In fact, honeycomb coal is very simple to make.

Hengzhou (Shanxi) is originally a major coal producing area, and even a large number of open-pit coal mines can be seen near Pingcheng.

People call it coal, and everyone knows that it can be burned. However, unless absolutely necessary, neither the Han people who farm nor the nomadic Hu people would use coal to make fire for heating.

The idea that coal is poisonous is deeply rooted in people's minds, and no one is willing to mine coal unless they have no other choice.

In addition, coal has another major disadvantage, which is that it is difficult to ignite.

This thing is resistant to burning, but difficult to flammable and poisonous, so naturally no one is interested in it.

The Han people cut down trees to make charcoal, and nomadic people burned cow dung, both of which were far better fuels than coal.

When Su Ze saw so many exposed coal mines, his saliva was about to flow.

A violent thing!
He ordered Su Qiao to bring craftsmen to crush the coal blocks into powder, mix the coal powder, charcoal powder, hay and sawdust together with mud, and then make honeycomb coal with holes in the middle.

Then Su Ze ordered his blacksmiths to make a carbon furnace.

Murong Shaozong's hometown was nearby, and he had also seen these open-air coals. He reminded Su Ze:
"My Lord, coal is poisonous. Please be careful."

Su Ze waved his hand nonchalantly. In fact, what people think of as carbon monoxide poisoning is actually carbon monoxide poisoning.

It’s just that because natural coal mines generally contain impurities such as sulfur, which give off a pungent smell when burning, people combine carbon monoxide poisoning with this smell, and believe that the pungent smell of burning coal is poisonous.

Su Qiao set up the charcoal stove in the house, used a chimney to lead the exhaust gas out of the house, and then ignited the honeycomb coal with wood blocks.

Looking at the rising flames, Murong Shaozong took a breath. The burning charcoal stove did not have the pungent smell of burning coal.

But Murong Shaozong still did not dare to take it lightly and looked at the charcoal stove vigilantly.

Su Qiao put the iron pot on the charcoal stove again and started to boil water.

After waiting for a long time, there was still no sign of poisoning. Murong Shaozong became bolder. He moved closer to observe and found that the charcoal stove was indeed very sophisticated and easy to use.

Murong Shaozong knew that Hengzhou was bitterly cold. In fact, it was not just Hengzhou. Places like Xiazhou, Gaoping and Hezhou were all very cold in winter, and many people froze to death every year.

Not only civilians froze to death, but soldiers in the military camps also froze to death.

Although charcoal and firewood are safer than coal, ordinary people cannot afford charcoal, and collecting firewood takes a lot of time and manpower. If non-toxic coal can be promoted, it will definitely be a good thing for the country and the people.

Murong Shaozong immediately asked:

“How much does this cost?”

Su Qiao pointed at the charcoal stove and said:
"The furnace body is made of clay, which is very low cost and can be fired with coal, which will not affect its use."

"The main cost is the chimney. The chimney needs to be made of iron, but it doesn't need to be good iron. It can be made of iron burned from coal." Weapons made from coal will become brittle, which is a truth known to all Turks.

When the Northern Wei Dynasty was first established, it suffered such a loss.

In the early days of the Northern Wei Dynasty, coal from Hengzhou was used to smelt iron. Sulfur-containing impurities were mixed into the molten iron, and the weapons made from it often broke on the battlefield, causing great losses.

Later, after absorbing the culture of the Han soldiers, the rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty realized the disadvantages of using coal to smelt iron. Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao personally ordered a ban on the use of coal in iron smelting, and charcoal must be used to smelt iron.

The Han people in the Central Plains had discovered this long ago, and all weapons in the Han Dynasty were smelted with charcoal.

But all this has also brought about a consequence, that is, large-scale deforestation since the Han Dynasty, coupled with human reclamation activities, has led to a decrease in forest resources.

Especially after the frenzied iron smelting and military expansion in the Tang Dynasty, the forest resources in the Guanzhong region were completely exhausted.

In his poem, Bai Juyi said that the charcoal seller "cut firewood and burned charcoal in the southern mountains." At that time, there were still large tracts of forest in the southern mountains of Chang'an that could be used to make charcoal.

But at the end of the Tang Dynasty, when Huang Chao's troops besieged Chang'an, there were no forests near Chang'an, and Huang Chao's army had to transport heating supplies from the rear, which was enough to show the rapid deterioration of the ecology in Guanzhong.

The large-scale deforestation led to serious land desertification, and since then the Song Dynasty no longer had its capital in Guanzhong.

Since the Song Dynasty, the scarcity of forest resources has plagued the Central Plains dynasties. There was not enough charcoal to make weapons, so coal mines had to be established to supply coal to the people of Bianliang for heating. Song Dynasty weapons were also smelted with coal, resulting in the Song Dynasty's weapons being the worst in all dynasties, even worse than the unearthed weapons handed down from the Han and Tang dynasties.

By the Ming Dynasty, the government had realized the drawbacks of coal smelting, but there were still a large number of weapons that needed to be smelted with coal.

The imitation Portuguese cannons made in the Ming Dynasty were more likely to explode than the imported ones because there were impurities in the smelted gun barrels.

Coal desulfurization is a complicated process, and Su Ze is not sure how to do it.

However, making coal into honeycomb coal and promoting the use of carbon stoves for heating are also beneficial to people's livelihood.

These things can also be sold to the northern grasslands as a trade. As long as they are cheaper than charcoal, there will definitely be many people willing to buy them.

Su Ze was very satisfied with Su Qiao's results, and the system actually popped up a prompt after a long time.

"The new building - [Coal Mine] is completed!"

【Coal Field】

Building Type: Production Building;
Level: Small (100 labor);
Uses: Coal mines can be used to mine coal and make honeycomb coal.

Building requirements: Artisan followers, Miners
Building function:

1. Produce honeycomb briquettes.

2. Research coal technology.

Research technology?

Su Ze's eyes lit up. This was a new function that had never appeared in the system before!
Before this, the followers summoned by Su Ze were all no older than this era.

The same goes for the buildings that can be deployed, all of which are buildings of this era.

However, this action to improve coal actually led to the emergence of a coal mine, which should have appeared in the Song Dynasty, and it also provided an additional place for research!

Doesn't that mean you can put followers in this building and upgrade your technology yourself?
Su Ze was somewhat delighted. Coal was an important raw material for the development of science and technology. Su Ze certainly knew that it was impossible to develop modern technologies all at once, but as long as he could make better use of coal, it would be a great progress!
If we set up more coal mines, can we speed up the research progress of coal technology?
Su Ze said to Su Qiao:

"Take your people and look around Pingcheng to see if there is any place suitable for building a coal mine. I plan to set up a few more coal mines."

Su Qiao happily took the order and left.

But Su Ze started to think again.
Since the coal mine can be retroactively recognized as a system building, if I create a building that surpasses this era, can it also be recognized by the system?
Is it possible to conduct research on technologies beyond the current era in these buildings?
Su Ze secretly reflected that he had been relying too much on the system's summoning function since he traveled through time, but had forgotten his advantage as a time traveler in terms of technology.

It’s not too late to find out now.

Even if we cannot research technology that is too far ahead of the times, being able to make slight improvements would be a remarkable progress.

The [Coal Yard] is a new building, but what about the [Brick Yard] that Su Ze established before?

Su Ze opened the system again, and sure enough, under the [Brickyard] building, there was a new research project: "Research on stronger bricks."

That’s right, the popularity of brick walls is actually related to the development of brick-making technology, and bricks are also a technology that can be used in people’s livelihood and the military.

Su Ze didn't expect that after traveling through so many years, this system could still bring him surprises!

Just before Su Ze shut down the system, a new message popped up. This was information sent by Su Tan, his follower stationed in Qingzhou, indicating that Xing Gao and Erzhu Rong would fight at the Jishui River.

Su Ze said to Murong Shaozong:

"Good news, Erzhu Rong has gone to Qingzhou."

(End of this chapter)